Dr Chiam Toon Lim, Paul

Dr Chiam Toon Lim, Paul

Specialty: Cardiology

Background

Dr Paul Chiam is a cardiologist practising at Mount Elizabeth Hospital and Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital, Singapore. He subspecialises in interventional cardiology, and performed the first transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedure in Asia in 2009.

Dr Chiam currently serves as a proctor helping to train new TAVR centres across Asia. He continues to teach at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS, in his capacity as Adjunct Associate Professor.

Dr Chiam graduated on the Dean’s list from the National University of Singapore (NUS) Faculty of Medicine and completed his postgraduate Master of Medicine (NUS) exam where he was awarded the Gordon Ransome Gold Medal. He began his cardiology specialisation at the National Heart Centre Singapore, and was awarded a Health Manpower Development Plan (HMDP) scholarship in 2006 to subspecialise in interventional cardiology.

Dr Chiam trained at the renowned Lenox Hill Heart and Vascular Institute of New York where he spent 18 months gaining hands-on experience in complex coronary angioplasty, carotid artery angioplasty and stenting, peripheral artery angioplasty, and structural heart disease (heart valve) interventions. He then spent a further 3 months training in intracranial angioplasty and stenting at the Department of Endovascular Neurosurgery, University of Buffalo, State University of New York.

Dr Chiam returned to the National Heart Centre Singapore in 2008 as a senior consultant at the Department of Cardiology, and subsequently became the first Asian proctor for the Edwards Lifesciences TAVR programme. He was also the first Asian proctor for the Medtronic CoreValve TAVR programme. He has trained and proctored new centres in South Korea, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, India and Japan.

Due to his commitment to patient care, Dr Chiam was awarded a Bronze Service Quality award in December 2009 and another Bronze Service Quality award in March 2011. At the SingLIVE Interventional Cardiology conference 2009, he was the first runner-up in the Best of Young Interventionalist case competition.

Dr Chiam is well-recognised in the field of interventional cardiology, and has been invited as a guest faculty or speaker to major international cardiovascular conferences such as the American College of Cardiology Scientific Sessions, the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) (USA), EuroPCR, PCR London Valves, Complex Cardiovascular Therapeutics, Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics Asia Pacific (TCTAP) and China Interventional Therapeutics (CIT) among others. He has also been invited as a case operator to conduct workshops and perform cases in ‘live transmissions’ for complex coronary interventions, peripheral artery interventions and mitral valvuloplasties in Vietnam, Myanmar, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Taiwan and China.

Dr Chiam has published extensively in top cardiovascular journals. In recognition of his research publications, he was appointed adjunct associate professor in the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore. He also won the SingHealth Publish! Award in 2012 for a paper published in a major cardiovascular journal.

Dr Chiam is the current secretary general of the Asian Pacific Society of Interventional Cardiology (APSIC) and the co-chair of the APSIC Scientific Committee. He is also a member of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) Peripheral Vascular Disease Section Leadership Council.